As if everyone walking around with a DSLR pretending to be Ansel Adams wasn't bad enough, a research group in Japan has developed the Ubi-Camera which lets you compose a photo by looking through your fingers. Just like an old-timey director. OK, that's actually dope.

The underlying technology is pretty neat. When held up in front of your face, a built-in infrared range sensor determines how far your fingers are away from your head, and that information is then used to crop the image so it matches the framed composition you're seeing.

Too bad the Ubi-Camera is still in the prototype stages at this point. Besides being permanently tethered to a PC, it can't zoom, and its infrared range sensor is prone to mistakes. So the researchers are hoping to implement a face recognition system instead which should prove more accurate in determining where the camera is being held. [DigInfo TV via Dvice]